A Sprig of Mistletoe
by KissofJudas
Summary: -EARLY PIECE- It's Salvatana Eve, and Tifa Lockheart's alone in Final Heaven when the last person she expected to see back in her life walks through the door. Christmas special, please R&R!


A/N: So here's another little one-shot for Christmas. Taking a leaf out of one of my favorite author's books, Christmas in here is used for the extent of the secular version, not the religious version. I've taken to using Salvatana for their Christmas and I'll again use it here. Just so y'all know.

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Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy people…at all…unfortunately… oh well.

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It was Salvatana Eve, and Nibelheim was quiet, save for the occasional carol that drifted through the air. The jukebox in the bar was honking out what it supposed to be "Jingle Bells", except the age of the machine gave it an odd techno feel, and the bartender sighed. Tifa Lockheart had spent her Christmases alone for a long time now, and this year seemed to be proving no exception. She saw no reason to shut down Final Heaven, her rebuilt bar, for the season, so she surrounded herself with other people who had nowhere to go. For the moment, the place was empty save for her and the sprig of mistletoe Cid had hung in the middle of the ceiling when he had visited earlier. It gave the ceiling the edge of festivity to match the rest of the bar, covered in silver tinsel, wreaths, and old ornaments made of glass from Tifa's youth. Cloud had been gone ever since Meteor had fallen, and that had been…what, nearly five years ago now? She doubted that he was ever going to come back. She wiped down the counter for what seemed to be the millionth time and finally just sat down in a chair she'd put back behind the counter about three hours ago. Setting her head down on the worn marble, she began to hum along with the carol the jukebox had switched to, "Winter Wonderland". Back before Cloud had grown so distant, back before Meteor, he had sung a beautiful tenor harmony to this song with her, and tears came to her eyes with the memory. The bell she'd attached to the door jingled softly as someone entered. Not bothering to look up immediately, she continued humming until the person began humming with her, the same tenor melody Cloud had sung, but with a decidedly different tone to the voice. She'd heard it before, but not all that often. She looked up to see a man in sunglasses at her door, thick blue winter coat zipped tightly around them, darker blue scarf covering their mouth, and black hat on their head. When it was nearly midnight, only one person would walk into her bar still wearing sunglasses.

"You are the last person I expected to walk through those doors." The person just nodded and sat down on a bar stool, taking off his scarf.

"You were open," he said simply. Removing his sunglasses, Rude looked up at Tifa. She wasn't looking back at him, but she knew what his eyes looked like. One blue and one hazel, they'd be looking up at her with that same distant look he'd always had around anyone she'd ever known to see Rude without his sunglasses. There was emotion, if you knew where to look, in those husky eyes but he kept it well hidden. He always said that being able to control his emotions was his greatest strength. She said it was his ability to punch people through a wall, but that was getting into semantics.

"I didn't know you sang."

"A lot of people don't know a lot about me." She had to know that. You couldn't say that Tifa and Rude had been dating, but he'd been showing up to the bar regularly for almost the entire time Shinra had been demolished. About a year ago, he'd stopped coming, but Tifa thought nothing of it. He had been a Turk, and always would be. The fact that he no longer wore the blue suit or killed people for a living was irrelevant. Being a Turk was more than a title, it was a lifestyle, as Reno had so kindly pointed out to her once.

"Where did you go?" she finally asked. Rude said nothing for a long time.

"Get me something to drink. Then we'll talk." She turned and almost automatically made a Shirley Temple. Rude nearly never drank, but once it was nearly complete, she stopped and shook her head.

"What do you want?"

"I get the same thing every time I come here." She finished the drink and handed it to him. He took it with a nod and sipped it. Once it was about half gone, he looked back up at her, as if he expected her to say something.

"What?"

"Ask me again." She sighed.

"Where did you go?"

"When?"

"A year ago. You used to come here every day…and then you stopped. Where did you go?" He fell silent and sipped his drink.

"To Costa del Sol." She nodded.

"To visit your family?" He looked up at her.

"My family lives on the northern continent." She seemed puzzled.

"Didn't you tell me once that someone lives in Costa?"

"My cousin."

"That's family…" He shrugged.

"I stayed with Landon for a while." She nodded. When he went add nothing more, she had to prompt him with another question.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you leave…why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think you wanted me here." Part of her wanted to say _You're not wanted here! You're one of **them**, I shouldn't even be having this conversation with you_, but the other half wanted to cry and say _Why would you ever think that? Of course you're wanted here…everyone's wanted here…_

"What made you think that?" He looked up at her again, this time with a look of near disbelief.

"I'm a Turk." That of course answers everything.

"So?"

"You were part of AVALANCHE. Remember us trying to kill you?"

"Well, I'd expect that of Reno, and Elena would do anything Tseng told her to do…" Tifa paused. "Why'd you join Shinra?"

"To get away from my father."

"He wanted you there, didn't he?"

"Yes." Tifa fell silent and Rude seemed to smirk.

"What?"

"This is a pleasant Salvatana conversation. 'So, why did you try to destroy the world?'" Tifa laughed, albeit halfheartedly.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" A thousand answers came to mind. I'm sorry for pushing you away, for being part of AVALANCHE, for your father being a bastard who was blind to the remarkable man his son was, for the fact that you had to live with a moron and a suck-up for partners in Shinra…

"I don't know." And in the end, the most non-descriptive answer was settled on. Rude almost smiled at that. He looked around, finishing off his drink. As soon as the empty glass hit the table, Tifa had taken it and refilled it out of habit.

"It's festive in here." She nodded, handing him his glass back.

"It wasn't until about a week or two ago. Cid Highwind and Shera Mettalison came over and made me decorate." Rude simply nodded and there was an awkward silence for a long time. "I've missed you, Rude," she finally said. That caught his attention and he looked back at her. "I've missed having you around." He looked away again.

"Yeah…I've missed you too," he replied after a long pause. "I don't think I realized that I'd missed you until I walked back into this place and heard you humming." He looked around, almost nervously for Rude. "It's been a long time."

"Almost a year now." He nodded.

"If I'd known I was coming back, I'd have gotten you a present."

"It's okay. You're back…that's present enough." That actually got a bit of a smile on Rude's face. He looked at a clock on the wall.

"It's later than I thought." She looked. It hadn't been all that long since he'd gotten here, maybe half an hour, but it was officially Salvatana now.

"Do you have somewhere to go?" He shrugged.

"I might go to Junon and see if I can find Reno…or go to back to Costa and see Landon and Elena…or maybe find another bar somewhere with a pretty girl to talk to in it."

"Or you can stay here," she added in a whisper. He looked into her eyes and shrugged, a slight nod accompanying the gesture.

"Or I can stay here." He glanced up and saw the sprig of mistletoe and smirked. "Did Cid put that up?" Tifa looked up and nodded.

"He thought it gave the ceiling holiday spirit." Rude nodded and looked back to Tifa.

"He was right." Tifa had enough time to look back down at Rude and smile before he'd leaned over and kissed her. Grabbing the moment, she leaned into the kiss, eyes closed. A moment later, Rude pulled away and replaced his scarf and sunglasses. "Do you have a room in your house?" Tifa could only nod. "Can I stay there?" She nodded again. He stood and made his way to the door.

"Rude?" He stopped and turned back. "Happy Salvatana." Rude seemed to smile, as far as she could tell.

"Happy Salvatana, Tifa." With that, he walked out, setting a brisk pace to her house. Strolling to the door, finally smiling, she watched him vanish into the house and then flipped the sign on her door. Final Heaven was closed for the Salvatana season.


End file.
